543. ENGLISH - Zero Plural

Zero Plural

 

Definition:

A plural form of a count noun that is identical to the singular form.

Zero plural marking refers to the absence of the plural markers -s and -es.

Several animal names (sheep, deer, cod) and certain nationalities (Japanese, Sioux, Taiwanese) take the zero plural in English.

 

Examples and Observations:

• "This week the debate is on an idea to let everyone fish a few cod 'just for food.'"
  
  
• "We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way."
  
  
• The Chinese use the term 'ydng' to mean both goats and sheep.

• "In English, plurals of nouns are normally indicated by the ending –s or –es, or in a few cases by –en, as in children and oxen.

Some vernacular varieties of English do not use plural endings in measurement phrases such as three mile and ten pound. This zero plural has a long history and was not formerly as socially stigmatized as it is today. . . .

In adjectival constructions even Standard English has no –s plural:

a five-pound box of candy is acceptable, whereas a five-pounds box is not.

These adjective phrases derive from an –a suffix in Old English that marked plural adjectives. This ending has long since fallen away, leaving behind the unmarked root forms.

The absence of –s in the plural form of animal names (hunting for bear, a herd of buffalo) probably arose by analogy with animals like deer and sheep whose plurals have been unmarked since the earliest beginnings of the English language."

• "I'm horrified of lobsters. And shrimp and lobsters are the cockroaches of the ocean."

"Bluefin tuna contain higher levels of mercury than other species of tuna because they live longer and, like humans, accumulate more mercury in their body tissues."

• Zero Plurals With Numerals, Quantifiers, and Nouns of Measure
  "[Zero plurals] include the names of some animals, particularly cod, deer, sheep;

nouns denoting quantity when they are premodified by a numeral or other quantifier and particularly when they are attached to a noun head:

two hundred (people), three dozen (plants), several thousand (dollars).

The measure nouns foot (length unit),

pound (unit of weight or of British currency), and

stone (British weight unit)

optionally take zero plurals:

six foot two, twenty pound, fifteen stone."
"His hat, I reckon, weighed ten pound
To say the least, and I'll say, shore,
His overcoat weighed fifty more."

"I have known when he would have walked ten mile afoot to see a good armour."

"The foggers and cooling fans were going full blast in Jim's twin five-hundred-foot-long chicken houses."